Eames and Jamie backdated to Sept 21st
Sep. 21st, 2013 12:18 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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om_mainEames meets a whole roomful of Jamies and takes to it like a duck to water. Unsuprisingly.
There were somewhere between either and a dozen Jamies lounging about the rec room and several more in varying places about the house and grounds. It hadn't taken long for him to get over the shock of seeing the familiar house as a school and he once again was feeling very much at home. A few dupes were arguing over the remote, a few were over at the snooker table and others on the floor playing card games whilst Prime sprawled out on one of the couches, lazily flipping through a discarded magazine and feeling utterly comforted by the babble around him.
Eames wandered into the rec room, a leather bound art book in hand. He slowed once through the threshold. Eames looked around at the multiple Jamies and honestly couldn't stop himself from commenting, "This brings playing with yourself to a whole new level."
"Guess how many times we've head that since we arrived!" One of the Jamies nearest to the newcomer grinned as he folded and left the card game.
"I assume a plethora of times. It's really... difficult to suppress. You be must Jamie--and Jamie, and Jamie, and Jamie."
"Some of us prefer to answer to James but yeah, generally we're Jamie." Was confirmed by that same dupe though one of the others added
"We live with Harkness, the jokes have gotten way creative now. You need to step up a gear, dude!"
"I wouldn't dare compete with Jack's creativity. It might get dangerous."
There was much agreement before one of them asked "So who are you?"
"Eames," he answered simply.
"Nice to meet you." The nearest dupe grinned, offering his hand.
Eames reached over and shook. "Interesting power, there. I imagine my parents would have been horrified to have more of me at once."
"No idea how mine first reacted. Mom always says we're gonna drive her loony one day though." The dupe shaking his hand told him.
"We can decrease if it's, like, too overwhelming or whatever." One of the guys at the pool table offered whilst Prime simply asked "And what do you do?"
Eames gave the Jamie who'd spoken a long look over, then shrugged, and shifted instantly into another copy of the dupes in the room. "I'm not overwhelmed very easily. The more the merrier," he said.
For a moment the hoard of Jamies were stunned into silence, an achievement not made by many, until Prime vaulted over the couch and walked around Eames inspecting curiously. "Not a bad copy."
"Don't know you well enough to mimic mannerisms, but I copy or create people. It's a knack." At least Eames had switched to an American accent, since his usual accent didn't fit the body.
Jamie Prime was still circling Eames as several of the dupes started moving closer to get a look for themselves.
"Fucking impressive for a few minutes looking at us." He decided when he finally came to a halt in front of Eames. "Accent needs some work though."
"So you can do anything? Anyone?" One of the dupes asked coming up behind Prime.
"Anyone, especially given time to get to know them. It seems to bother people more when I copy real people, so I tend to make new bodies more often, but that's simply the dubious moral code of it." He smiled. "You make great camouflage. "
"We've never been called that before!" Commented one. Though a few dupes had gone back to doing their own thing, most were still intrigued by Eames and his powers.
"Plus there's already so many of us around it's not weird for us. Well, there's no connection but that's not always working anyway." The Dupe now leaning on Prime told him.
"You're like a walking a walking fantasy come true really, you can literally be anything." The dupe still holding a pool cue pointed out thoughtfully.
"And ironically, my boyfriend doesn't even care about the body swapping. I'm not sure he registers anymore when I switch the forms up on him." Eames swapped out of Jamie's body and into his standard female form. "This is my other most frequent form, so if you see me around it's usually this or the one I was born with." Back to his original body. "Orrrr something else entirely. I get bored. I like new things."
"Like us. For now." Was grinned by a Jamie.
"So, you're saying he doesn't even bat his eyelashes when a total stranger sit in his lap and announce he or she is his boyfriend?" Prime asked more curiously, surely the identity thing could get a bit weird for them at times? "He must be the most chill dude ever, or just really not fussy."
"He's very perceptive... And pretty chill, yes. I think at this point he knows my behavior better than my outer appearance. I'm also the only person who so far has dared to leap into his lap--I do not recommend testing that theory though." Eames smiled fondly. "Hell, I may have just broken him."
Most of the Jamies laughed a little at that "Sounds like a decent bloke."
"You know, I always wondered what someone would make of knowingly dating a guy with powers like mine." Prime commented and he lent against the back of the couch.
"Not many girls would have patience for all of us." Another added.
"Or guys." A third pitched in.
"We don't do that."
"I might."
"No you don't, quit showing off." The third dupe got smacked upside the head resulting in the creation of a further couple of dupes. "Sorry, some of us can't help playing up to an audience."
"Oh, darlings, I judge nothing, I can imagine the right person wouldn't mind that much attention. After the 4rth one of you tried to wedge into a bed I'm sure it'll get complicated, but two or three could be fantastic." He winked.
"With us lot would that be incest or masturbation?" One of the newly appeared dupes asked thoughtfully causing another to groan loudly "We don't know him." as the rest started snickering.
Prime just shook his head at them all before turning to Eames "So, I think what you're witnessing here is the most unique form of mental breakdown known to man."
"Piece by piece, hm?" Eames grinned
"Something like that." Was grinned back "Thought you gotta admit it's a new spin on those philosophical questions. 'If a trees falls blah blah blah' cat in a lead box and now me: incest or masturbation. The philosophy teacher's gonna love me."
"Oh, yes. It's a very deep life question. I say the answer is whichever doesn't scare away your bed partner."
"Good answer. If we were ever to try it, of course." Was added with another laugh. Because surely most people would be put off? Jamie wasn't sure but it would be interesting to find out now he was with other mutants who knew about him.
"I recommend broad horizons, makes life more interesting." Eames just grinned and looked to see if there was some couch space open without a Jamie on it. "Mind if I hang in here with you guys?"
"The more, the merrier!" At least half of the Jamies informed him as they started making room.
Eames headed over to get seated, opening the art book in his lap and pulling a pencil out of it. "Change of scenery is sometimes necessary, and it gets too quiet around here."
"Quiet is something we're not very good at." The Jamie on Eames' left told him and since the pool and card games had started up again, along with the inevitable squabbling, his point was pretty much immediately made.
"I can only imagine. Certainly a power that leads to entertainment."
"Hours of fun with me, myself and I." Another dupe agreed "And being able to be open about it is fucking awesome, isn't it?"
"Oh, absolutely. I was pretty tired of keeping my abilities in the closet. Really stunts the creativity."
"I had to pretend I was a triplet or whatever but we were useless at keeping the names straight."
Eames nodded. "Yeah, I had to blatantly lie to people. There's only so long you can maintain a relationship as someone else before it bites you in the arse. Mainly during the holiday season."
"Oh the holidays, nightmare for the folks. They never know how many kids to buy for, prepare food for or anything." Jamie laughed as one of the dupes peaked over Eames shoulder to check out his sketching.
The pages Eames had opened to seemed to be a number of fashion sketches, a similar outfit on each page, but one for a female form and one for male. There seemed to be a snow queen motif. Eames peered up at the dupe. "Contemplating Halloween," he explained. "I take reasons for costumes very seriously."
"Wouldn't respect a man who didn't." He was told with a nod. "Halloween a big deal around here then?"
"We like excuses for parties. We're pretty creative with it. If you like party planning I'll point you to Pietro, Ali, and the hoard." He smiled. "This year my goal is to be lazy so a few costumes is my limit."
"I'm more for the partying than the planning. Well, most of me. But if they need man power we're happy to help." Which caused a little grumbling from a few dupes, though it mostly seemed good-natured. "Guess we'd better start brain storming."
"Yes, planning early is clearly the way to go. Join the obsessive crowd that starts this insanity weeks in advance." Eames winked.
"What else are we meant to do? We got a lot of bodies to dress and no one ever agrees right away." Was grinned right back.
"If you ever care to go as the cast of 300 I think there are some students that might appreciate."
"We like the way you think!" Was chorused back.
Eames laughed warmly. "Here's hoping it's a warm Halloween."
"This is also true."
"Is it cool to ask about the sketching?"
"Oh, yeah," Eames assured. "I'm not a very withdrawn person. Ask whatever you like."
"Who, what, where, why, all the questions really. You take art class yeah?" One of his dupes was in that class but not one he'd reabsorbed recently.
"Not anymore," Eames admitted. "Dropped it for the year. Too much structure and the requirement that I wake up for a scheduled time. I've got more important things to do. You may see me around the room though when I want to work with supplies I don't feel like stashing in the dorm."
"That's cool. In bid to keep these fuckers entertained I've enrolled in everything. We'll see how long it all lasts. So what're you drawing?"
Eames gave the closest Jamie a better view. "I think I'm going blond for Halloween, which for some reason inspired the Snow Queen idea. I was stuck in my last costume for the masquerade because I didn't want to ruin the details, but I figure I can come up with two costumes of the same theme and materials and shift between them when I feel like changing forms. I'm working out the details."
"Are the clothes easier or harder than the body?" The dupe on Eames left asked while Prime was checking out the designs.
"Wait so are your clothes, like, real or just imagined then?" One of the others added
"Depends on the body, depends on the clothes. New bodies aren't always simple, but generic bodies are kind of easy. Specific details are harder, functional mutations like wings are harder, but if I know someone decently well it's pretty easy for me to think about them and match them dead on. In that situation, a very elaborate couture outfit would be harder than copying my best mate." Eames smiled. "But my best mate's too adorable to copy, I'd do no justice."
"Are you saying we're not adorable?" One of the card playing dupes asked immediately, turning to his mirror image beside him and telling him "I think we just got insulted, dude."
"Quit stirring." Prime rolled his eye, more interested in hearing about Eames' mutation than more of the usual squabbling between his identicals. "You've tried wings? Now that's awesome. See people are impressed with mine but I can only make more of the same. Yours is, like, limitless." He enthused.
"Certainly endless," Eames concurred. "When I met Warren I asked permission to study his wings. I couldn't get the mechanics right before seeing the real thing. Lord, they are a beauty."
"Only seen them on tv so far," Prime was only speaking for himself, a dupe might of. He wasn't sure. "But they look pretty damn awesome."
"We have some really lovely mutations around here. Kurt's another one--dextrous tail? Amazing."
“Blue german dude? Yeah, seen him around." Was nodded by one as another commented
"That's gotta be pretty fucking handy. The lizard kid's doesn't seen useful at all though, I mean wings and shit you get a pay off at least but scaley skin?"
Eames shrugged. "You can't always guess the extent of someone's powers, or what they can do with them."
"True, Betsy would scare me a whole lot more if it hadn't turned out my dupes make me hard to read. I'm too split up, I guess." Plenty more of the powers could be pretty scary, actually, if misused.
"Ahhh, the telepaths. Yeah, they really crimp on the game." Eames tapped his temple. "I can't exactly change what's up here."
"Yeah it's weird." The Jamie on his other side nodded.
Prime continued "We're used to us reading each other's minds and that's different. It's nice to know it was harder with us."
"She seem pretty cool though. If someone's gotta be wandering in there. Better a nice chick than a douche, right?" One of the pool playing dupes called over.
"This is true." Prime agreed with a head bob before glancing at Eames with a smirk "Or are you about to tell us we've been had by a master manipulator?"
Eames smiled. "I think you're safe. Other than the professor, I think all the local telepaths are lovely ladies. Some a bit, ah, more tactful than others. All very decent people."
"Great to hear." And Prof promised them years ago that he'd keep out of their heads anyway. "So, how long before all this becomes mundane? Or is it like Buffy, a new monster every week?"
"I don't know, how mutable are you?" Eames asked, lips quirked. "It became mundane to me in a couple of days. Can't say the same for everyone else."
"We'll see." Prime agreed before jumping back a few topics. "So, Snow queen, huh?"
"I'm feeling icy. Or voluminous."
"Unusual feelings really." Prime commented mildly, looking over the sketches again. Good sketches though he had very few useful comments about designing dresses.
"Why're you going as a chick and not a dude?" One of the others asked though.
"Oh, I'll be going as both---but mainly for excuse to make this dress. I'll likely transition between the two all evening, but men's clothing can be a bit more dull."
"Can't argue with that. Can't say I've ever wanted to wear women's clothes either though." There was a pause and Jamie couldn't help feeling relieved when no dupes disagreed. He just didn't need that right now.
"I'd say I've spent at least a fifth of my life as a woman of some kind or another," Eames said thoughtfully.
"That is kind of weird to me but, hey, my powers are weird to you I bet." A Jamie shrugged, the dupes that were listening were nodding along. Every one seemingly unable to imagine swapping gender let alone wanting to. "You think of yourself as a dude then or? And feel free to tell us to fuck off, we are being pretty nosey."
"When I'm in this body, yes. If I'm in a different body it can fluctuate. Depends on my mood or my activities. It's easier to be the body I'm in than to mess with pronouns and identity crises."
"And we thought our identity shit was fucked." Was chuckled good-naturely.
Eames just smiled. "I question very little. I know exactly who I am--and I can be anything else as well."
"Awesome." Coz, really, what else could he say?
"Life's easier when stop questioning things. Just go with the flow."
Looking around them, Jamie had to nod. Most his dupes were too. "If I had one, I'd drink to that!"
"We'll have to save that for another time. So wait. What happens if you all get plastered, and then you make less or more of you? Does that affect the overall alcohol content at all?"
"Uh well if we're. I mean I'm drunk, or hurt actually, I can divide up and split the damage and then rejoin either totally sober or healed or at least partially. It's like watering down the bad stuff basically." The dupe on Eames' other side explained before Prime got the chance to.
"Love it. That's super useful. I can heal up sometimes but only when I'm shifting between different bodies. I've gone from tiny to much larger to try and beat the alcohol content--not an exact science."
"Mine neither but Moira finds it fascinating. Everytime I grazed a knee or whatever as a kid I'd have to go and let her watch. Figured out the sobering thing on my own though of course." Jamie grinned a little "Plus if I remember to make a designated driver dupe that can be pretty handy too."
"Ah, the wisdom of using our mutations in very important ways."
"What's the point in having them if it doesn't make our lives easier, right?" Prime nodded to which several dupes started grumbling, one came to perch on the arm of the couch as he informed Eames
"What he means is, he likes treating us like the instant fucking help. Sending us lot if he can't be arsed."
"You are me, that means you were part of the decision before the split." Prime shot back immediately without evening having to pause to think of a response. It was a common squabble between them all.
"So if there are ten million of you, give take," Eames asked the dupe closest to him. "How many hobbies do you all have? I imagine I would be learning the most useless and useful skills possible if I could make that amazing use of my time."
"Like we said we're taking every class here and other stuff's going on. Sometimes I don't even know everything that's going on til we all join up again." Jamie nodded and admitted "Conflicting memories can be a headfuck but I got plenty of skills from it. Plenty of upsides to being everywhere at once."
"Sounds wonderful. Color me green with envy."
"Says the dude who can grow his own wings!"
"Well yes, but I could go flying, while drawing, while snogging my boyfriend, while learning how to build an igloo, while waterskiing all at the same time. And that would be fabulous."
"True, true that does all seem fun. Well, except the snogging your boyfriend part. I'll give that a miss." Jamie chuckled before looking around "If any of these bozos do something though, you have my permission to punch them." He added because after that weird thing with Jack, he wasn't sure what he'd put passed some of these idiots.
"Oh, don't worry. Arthur can handle himself. I'm sure the plethora of you will cause no harm."
"It's hard to keep track of everyone see and the longer we're apart the more different they all get." As he spoke, Jamie reach out and reabsorbed the nearest dupe to him. He was starting to feel a little too divided.
Eames hummed thoughtfully. "Understandable. I could probably get that way in my own skin if I decided to try something else long enough."
"It's weird how much you can realize you don't know yourself." Jamie nodded, the extra memories and such had absorbed instantaneously as per usual so if didn't phase him. Anyone else might have found it overwhelming but it was normal to him to have a sudden rush of memory and knowledge.
"I just think we always have room to grow."
"This is true." One of the dupes nodded.
"Hope your power causes endless entertainment." Eames said with a grin.
"Just like yours."
"Oh, it will, it will."
There were somewhere between either and a dozen Jamies lounging about the rec room and several more in varying places about the house and grounds. It hadn't taken long for him to get over the shock of seeing the familiar house as a school and he once again was feeling very much at home. A few dupes were arguing over the remote, a few were over at the snooker table and others on the floor playing card games whilst Prime sprawled out on one of the couches, lazily flipping through a discarded magazine and feeling utterly comforted by the babble around him.
Eames wandered into the rec room, a leather bound art book in hand. He slowed once through the threshold. Eames looked around at the multiple Jamies and honestly couldn't stop himself from commenting, "This brings playing with yourself to a whole new level."
"Guess how many times we've head that since we arrived!" One of the Jamies nearest to the newcomer grinned as he folded and left the card game.
"I assume a plethora of times. It's really... difficult to suppress. You be must Jamie--and Jamie, and Jamie, and Jamie."
"Some of us prefer to answer to James but yeah, generally we're Jamie." Was confirmed by that same dupe though one of the others added
"We live with Harkness, the jokes have gotten way creative now. You need to step up a gear, dude!"
"I wouldn't dare compete with Jack's creativity. It might get dangerous."
There was much agreement before one of them asked "So who are you?"
"Eames," he answered simply.
"Nice to meet you." The nearest dupe grinned, offering his hand.
Eames reached over and shook. "Interesting power, there. I imagine my parents would have been horrified to have more of me at once."
"No idea how mine first reacted. Mom always says we're gonna drive her loony one day though." The dupe shaking his hand told him.
"We can decrease if it's, like, too overwhelming or whatever." One of the guys at the pool table offered whilst Prime simply asked "And what do you do?"
Eames gave the Jamie who'd spoken a long look over, then shrugged, and shifted instantly into another copy of the dupes in the room. "I'm not overwhelmed very easily. The more the merrier," he said.
For a moment the hoard of Jamies were stunned into silence, an achievement not made by many, until Prime vaulted over the couch and walked around Eames inspecting curiously. "Not a bad copy."
"Don't know you well enough to mimic mannerisms, but I copy or create people. It's a knack." At least Eames had switched to an American accent, since his usual accent didn't fit the body.
Jamie Prime was still circling Eames as several of the dupes started moving closer to get a look for themselves.
"Fucking impressive for a few minutes looking at us." He decided when he finally came to a halt in front of Eames. "Accent needs some work though."
"So you can do anything? Anyone?" One of the dupes asked coming up behind Prime.
"Anyone, especially given time to get to know them. It seems to bother people more when I copy real people, so I tend to make new bodies more often, but that's simply the dubious moral code of it." He smiled. "You make great camouflage. "
"We've never been called that before!" Commented one. Though a few dupes had gone back to doing their own thing, most were still intrigued by Eames and his powers.
"Plus there's already so many of us around it's not weird for us. Well, there's no connection but that's not always working anyway." The Dupe now leaning on Prime told him.
"You're like a walking a walking fantasy come true really, you can literally be anything." The dupe still holding a pool cue pointed out thoughtfully.
"And ironically, my boyfriend doesn't even care about the body swapping. I'm not sure he registers anymore when I switch the forms up on him." Eames swapped out of Jamie's body and into his standard female form. "This is my other most frequent form, so if you see me around it's usually this or the one I was born with." Back to his original body. "Orrrr something else entirely. I get bored. I like new things."
"Like us. For now." Was grinned by a Jamie.
"So, you're saying he doesn't even bat his eyelashes when a total stranger sit in his lap and announce he or she is his boyfriend?" Prime asked more curiously, surely the identity thing could get a bit weird for them at times? "He must be the most chill dude ever, or just really not fussy."
"He's very perceptive... And pretty chill, yes. I think at this point he knows my behavior better than my outer appearance. I'm also the only person who so far has dared to leap into his lap--I do not recommend testing that theory though." Eames smiled fondly. "Hell, I may have just broken him."
Most of the Jamies laughed a little at that "Sounds like a decent bloke."
"You know, I always wondered what someone would make of knowingly dating a guy with powers like mine." Prime commented and he lent against the back of the couch.
"Not many girls would have patience for all of us." Another added.
"Or guys." A third pitched in.
"We don't do that."
"I might."
"No you don't, quit showing off." The third dupe got smacked upside the head resulting in the creation of a further couple of dupes. "Sorry, some of us can't help playing up to an audience."
"Oh, darlings, I judge nothing, I can imagine the right person wouldn't mind that much attention. After the 4rth one of you tried to wedge into a bed I'm sure it'll get complicated, but two or three could be fantastic." He winked.
"With us lot would that be incest or masturbation?" One of the newly appeared dupes asked thoughtfully causing another to groan loudly "We don't know him." as the rest started snickering.
Prime just shook his head at them all before turning to Eames "So, I think what you're witnessing here is the most unique form of mental breakdown known to man."
"Piece by piece, hm?" Eames grinned
"Something like that." Was grinned back "Thought you gotta admit it's a new spin on those philosophical questions. 'If a trees falls blah blah blah' cat in a lead box and now me: incest or masturbation. The philosophy teacher's gonna love me."
"Oh, yes. It's a very deep life question. I say the answer is whichever doesn't scare away your bed partner."
"Good answer. If we were ever to try it, of course." Was added with another laugh. Because surely most people would be put off? Jamie wasn't sure but it would be interesting to find out now he was with other mutants who knew about him.
"I recommend broad horizons, makes life more interesting." Eames just grinned and looked to see if there was some couch space open without a Jamie on it. "Mind if I hang in here with you guys?"
"The more, the merrier!" At least half of the Jamies informed him as they started making room.
Eames headed over to get seated, opening the art book in his lap and pulling a pencil out of it. "Change of scenery is sometimes necessary, and it gets too quiet around here."
"Quiet is something we're not very good at." The Jamie on Eames' left told him and since the pool and card games had started up again, along with the inevitable squabbling, his point was pretty much immediately made.
"I can only imagine. Certainly a power that leads to entertainment."
"Hours of fun with me, myself and I." Another dupe agreed "And being able to be open about it is fucking awesome, isn't it?"
"Oh, absolutely. I was pretty tired of keeping my abilities in the closet. Really stunts the creativity."
"I had to pretend I was a triplet or whatever but we were useless at keeping the names straight."
Eames nodded. "Yeah, I had to blatantly lie to people. There's only so long you can maintain a relationship as someone else before it bites you in the arse. Mainly during the holiday season."
"Oh the holidays, nightmare for the folks. They never know how many kids to buy for, prepare food for or anything." Jamie laughed as one of the dupes peaked over Eames shoulder to check out his sketching.
The pages Eames had opened to seemed to be a number of fashion sketches, a similar outfit on each page, but one for a female form and one for male. There seemed to be a snow queen motif. Eames peered up at the dupe. "Contemplating Halloween," he explained. "I take reasons for costumes very seriously."
"Wouldn't respect a man who didn't." He was told with a nod. "Halloween a big deal around here then?"
"We like excuses for parties. We're pretty creative with it. If you like party planning I'll point you to Pietro, Ali, and the hoard." He smiled. "This year my goal is to be lazy so a few costumes is my limit."
"I'm more for the partying than the planning. Well, most of me. But if they need man power we're happy to help." Which caused a little grumbling from a few dupes, though it mostly seemed good-natured. "Guess we'd better start brain storming."
"Yes, planning early is clearly the way to go. Join the obsessive crowd that starts this insanity weeks in advance." Eames winked.
"What else are we meant to do? We got a lot of bodies to dress and no one ever agrees right away." Was grinned right back.
"If you ever care to go as the cast of 300 I think there are some students that might appreciate."
"We like the way you think!" Was chorused back.
Eames laughed warmly. "Here's hoping it's a warm Halloween."
"This is also true."
"Is it cool to ask about the sketching?"
"Oh, yeah," Eames assured. "I'm not a very withdrawn person. Ask whatever you like."
"Who, what, where, why, all the questions really. You take art class yeah?" One of his dupes was in that class but not one he'd reabsorbed recently.
"Not anymore," Eames admitted. "Dropped it for the year. Too much structure and the requirement that I wake up for a scheduled time. I've got more important things to do. You may see me around the room though when I want to work with supplies I don't feel like stashing in the dorm."
"That's cool. In bid to keep these fuckers entertained I've enrolled in everything. We'll see how long it all lasts. So what're you drawing?"
Eames gave the closest Jamie a better view. "I think I'm going blond for Halloween, which for some reason inspired the Snow Queen idea. I was stuck in my last costume for the masquerade because I didn't want to ruin the details, but I figure I can come up with two costumes of the same theme and materials and shift between them when I feel like changing forms. I'm working out the details."
"Are the clothes easier or harder than the body?" The dupe on Eames left asked while Prime was checking out the designs.
"Wait so are your clothes, like, real or just imagined then?" One of the others added
"Depends on the body, depends on the clothes. New bodies aren't always simple, but generic bodies are kind of easy. Specific details are harder, functional mutations like wings are harder, but if I know someone decently well it's pretty easy for me to think about them and match them dead on. In that situation, a very elaborate couture outfit would be harder than copying my best mate." Eames smiled. "But my best mate's too adorable to copy, I'd do no justice."
"Are you saying we're not adorable?" One of the card playing dupes asked immediately, turning to his mirror image beside him and telling him "I think we just got insulted, dude."
"Quit stirring." Prime rolled his eye, more interested in hearing about Eames' mutation than more of the usual squabbling between his identicals. "You've tried wings? Now that's awesome. See people are impressed with mine but I can only make more of the same. Yours is, like, limitless." He enthused.
"Certainly endless," Eames concurred. "When I met Warren I asked permission to study his wings. I couldn't get the mechanics right before seeing the real thing. Lord, they are a beauty."
"Only seen them on tv so far," Prime was only speaking for himself, a dupe might of. He wasn't sure. "But they look pretty damn awesome."
"We have some really lovely mutations around here. Kurt's another one--dextrous tail? Amazing."
“Blue german dude? Yeah, seen him around." Was nodded by one as another commented
"That's gotta be pretty fucking handy. The lizard kid's doesn't seen useful at all though, I mean wings and shit you get a pay off at least but scaley skin?"
Eames shrugged. "You can't always guess the extent of someone's powers, or what they can do with them."
"True, Betsy would scare me a whole lot more if it hadn't turned out my dupes make me hard to read. I'm too split up, I guess." Plenty more of the powers could be pretty scary, actually, if misused.
"Ahhh, the telepaths. Yeah, they really crimp on the game." Eames tapped his temple. "I can't exactly change what's up here."
"Yeah it's weird." The Jamie on his other side nodded.
Prime continued "We're used to us reading each other's minds and that's different. It's nice to know it was harder with us."
"She seem pretty cool though. If someone's gotta be wandering in there. Better a nice chick than a douche, right?" One of the pool playing dupes called over.
"This is true." Prime agreed with a head bob before glancing at Eames with a smirk "Or are you about to tell us we've been had by a master manipulator?"
Eames smiled. "I think you're safe. Other than the professor, I think all the local telepaths are lovely ladies. Some a bit, ah, more tactful than others. All very decent people."
"Great to hear." And Prof promised them years ago that he'd keep out of their heads anyway. "So, how long before all this becomes mundane? Or is it like Buffy, a new monster every week?"
"I don't know, how mutable are you?" Eames asked, lips quirked. "It became mundane to me in a couple of days. Can't say the same for everyone else."
"We'll see." Prime agreed before jumping back a few topics. "So, Snow queen, huh?"
"I'm feeling icy. Or voluminous."
"Unusual feelings really." Prime commented mildly, looking over the sketches again. Good sketches though he had very few useful comments about designing dresses.
"Why're you going as a chick and not a dude?" One of the others asked though.
"Oh, I'll be going as both---but mainly for excuse to make this dress. I'll likely transition between the two all evening, but men's clothing can be a bit more dull."
"Can't argue with that. Can't say I've ever wanted to wear women's clothes either though." There was a pause and Jamie couldn't help feeling relieved when no dupes disagreed. He just didn't need that right now.
"I'd say I've spent at least a fifth of my life as a woman of some kind or another," Eames said thoughtfully.
"That is kind of weird to me but, hey, my powers are weird to you I bet." A Jamie shrugged, the dupes that were listening were nodding along. Every one seemingly unable to imagine swapping gender let alone wanting to. "You think of yourself as a dude then or? And feel free to tell us to fuck off, we are being pretty nosey."
"When I'm in this body, yes. If I'm in a different body it can fluctuate. Depends on my mood or my activities. It's easier to be the body I'm in than to mess with pronouns and identity crises."
"And we thought our identity shit was fucked." Was chuckled good-naturely.
Eames just smiled. "I question very little. I know exactly who I am--and I can be anything else as well."
"Awesome." Coz, really, what else could he say?
"Life's easier when stop questioning things. Just go with the flow."
Looking around them, Jamie had to nod. Most his dupes were too. "If I had one, I'd drink to that!"
"We'll have to save that for another time. So wait. What happens if you all get plastered, and then you make less or more of you? Does that affect the overall alcohol content at all?"
"Uh well if we're. I mean I'm drunk, or hurt actually, I can divide up and split the damage and then rejoin either totally sober or healed or at least partially. It's like watering down the bad stuff basically." The dupe on Eames' other side explained before Prime got the chance to.
"Love it. That's super useful. I can heal up sometimes but only when I'm shifting between different bodies. I've gone from tiny to much larger to try and beat the alcohol content--not an exact science."
"Mine neither but Moira finds it fascinating. Everytime I grazed a knee or whatever as a kid I'd have to go and let her watch. Figured out the sobering thing on my own though of course." Jamie grinned a little "Plus if I remember to make a designated driver dupe that can be pretty handy too."
"Ah, the wisdom of using our mutations in very important ways."
"What's the point in having them if it doesn't make our lives easier, right?" Prime nodded to which several dupes started grumbling, one came to perch on the arm of the couch as he informed Eames
"What he means is, he likes treating us like the instant fucking help. Sending us lot if he can't be arsed."
"You are me, that means you were part of the decision before the split." Prime shot back immediately without evening having to pause to think of a response. It was a common squabble between them all.
"So if there are ten million of you, give take," Eames asked the dupe closest to him. "How many hobbies do you all have? I imagine I would be learning the most useless and useful skills possible if I could make that amazing use of my time."
"Like we said we're taking every class here and other stuff's going on. Sometimes I don't even know everything that's going on til we all join up again." Jamie nodded and admitted "Conflicting memories can be a headfuck but I got plenty of skills from it. Plenty of upsides to being everywhere at once."
"Sounds wonderful. Color me green with envy."
"Says the dude who can grow his own wings!"
"Well yes, but I could go flying, while drawing, while snogging my boyfriend, while learning how to build an igloo, while waterskiing all at the same time. And that would be fabulous."
"True, true that does all seem fun. Well, except the snogging your boyfriend part. I'll give that a miss." Jamie chuckled before looking around "If any of these bozos do something though, you have my permission to punch them." He added because after that weird thing with Jack, he wasn't sure what he'd put passed some of these idiots.
"Oh, don't worry. Arthur can handle himself. I'm sure the plethora of you will cause no harm."
"It's hard to keep track of everyone see and the longer we're apart the more different they all get." As he spoke, Jamie reach out and reabsorbed the nearest dupe to him. He was starting to feel a little too divided.
Eames hummed thoughtfully. "Understandable. I could probably get that way in my own skin if I decided to try something else long enough."
"It's weird how much you can realize you don't know yourself." Jamie nodded, the extra memories and such had absorbed instantaneously as per usual so if didn't phase him. Anyone else might have found it overwhelming but it was normal to him to have a sudden rush of memory and knowledge.
"I just think we always have room to grow."
"This is true." One of the dupes nodded.
"Hope your power causes endless entertainment." Eames said with a grin.
"Just like yours."
"Oh, it will, it will."
